Hiking in Mallorca, Spain

A holiday to Mallorca generally conjure up images of cheap package holidays and high rises and is often overlooked as a relaxing holiday destination. However with a London to Mallorca flight time of around two hours and 300 days of sunshine per year it’s the perfect place for a sunshine boost.

Relishing the chance to have a cheap week in the sun with a bit of exercise and delicious food and drink thrown in, me my fiancé and I dusted off our backpacks from our travelling days, strapped on our hiking boots and prepared for a holiday hiking across the country on the famous 90Km old pilgrim Dry Stone Way.

We were supposed to get the bus from Palma to start the hiking trails at the start of the trail at Port Andratx at the South West of the Island. However not having heard or researched anything about Palma before we arrived we were really surprised at the narrow cobbled streets, the Moorish architecture and decided to stay and spend a day or so exploring the back streets, soaking up the atmosphere and seeing if the nightlife in Mallorca was as good as we’d heard.

After a couple of days eating, drinking and relaxing we got a bit worried that we wouldn’t be able to finish the hike in time, so we decided to miss the first five stages of the walk out and take the old 90 year old vintage train that winds through the mountains to the old fishing village of Puerto Soller. The train was a bit of a tourist attraction but the scenery along the route makes up the clicking camaras, with flat plains and olive trees bordered by the Tramuntana range in the distance. After a quick fish supper we decided to have an early night in what must have been one of the prettiest villas in Majorca, so that we could get up early and do some proper walking, climbing up into the mountains on the old Pilgrim Route.

This is where the holiday really came into its own and we wished we’d started walking sooner, rather than spending time in Palma. Deep gorges, orchards, olive trees, many pretty wild flowers and small stone huts dotted the landscape en route and lunch consisted of local bread, cheese and ham at the small mountain refuges. We spent the night at Lluc Monastery and listened to the famous boys choir before getting up early, having a quick breakfast before starting out to climb Massanella the island’s highest mountain.

This was actually a really tough hike in the heat and it took us almost 9 hours, but the views at the top were unbelievable. Reaching the top was definitely the highlight of our holiday. We were lucky with the weather and visibility was perfect with views over the whole of the mountain range as well as over the island and the crystal blue sea.

Then it was time to get the fast train back for our flight back home. All in all it was a very inexpensive and memorable holiday. There are countless pretty villages along the coast and I think next time we’ll just base ourselves in one spot on one of the countries top 21 beaches and do some relaxing walks into the surrounding countryside.